Evaluating the Economic Benefits of Forest Ecosystem Management in the LiuKuei Experimental Forest

Ecosystem management should combine community and forestry together, and accomplish the community-based forest ecosystem management. The purpose of this research is to assess the totally total economic benefits of forest ecosystem management. In the era of environmental forestry, there are multiple benefits of forest. Total economic value (TEV) of the forest includes use values and non-use values. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was used in this research to obtain estimates of willingness to pay (WTP) for conserving nature resource of Liu-Kuei experimental forest. We used an in-person interview in all cities and counties of Taiwan, excluding off-islands of Pen-ghu, Kin-men, and Ma-tsu. Results from 1,200 in-person interviews indicated that people would pay an average (willingness to pay; WTP) of NT$108 per household per year for local area, and NT$334 per household per year for non-local area. No embedding effect was found in the result. The total economic value of Liu-Kuei nature resource is NT$1.565~2.757 billion annually. In addition, due to the damage and unhappiness to natural environment and society from developing Liu-Kuei experimental forest, people would accept an average (willingness to accept; WTA) of NT$336 per household per year for residents of local area, and NT$1,015 per household per year for residents of non-local area. The ratio of WTA to WTP is 3.11 in local area, and 3.04 in non-local area.
Key words: willingness to pay, willingness to accept, Contingent Valuation Method, non-market value, Total Economic Value, ecosystem management.
Wu CS, Chen YH, Chen LC, Lin JC, Jeng MR, Hsu CY, 2005. Evaluating the Economic Benefits of Forest Ecosystem Management in Liu-Kuie Experimental Forest. Taiwan J For Sci. 20():